3-To-Inspire with Marsha

Hey friends!  Marsha here today with this week's 3-To-Inspire Challenge.  I have created a layout in my Life Crafted Album using the beautiful "Gratitude" Life Crafted Kit and the This is Life "Grateful" Stamp.

Here are the prompts:

1. Use stamps
2. Use a cut file
3. Use puffy stickers

Here's the project I created:

For my layout today, I began by using my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the Grateful cut file- one of the subscriber exclusive cut files for this month.  I modified it slightly, removing the screen outline and florals and enlarging the word.  I used white cardstock for the cut file and backed the letters with a variety of patterned papers from the LC kit.  For the base of my page, I used another piece of white cardstock, trimmed to fit in the album.  The cut file was then adhered to the page, and I used some stamps from the Grateful Stamp to complete the title.  Because I knew I planned to use the kraft patterned paper for the other side of the spread, I added a thin strip of it to the edge of the page.  This helped to make the pages of my spread more cohesive.

To build the other side layout, I began with a white cardstock base and added the kraft patterned paper from the kit.  I love the typed sentiments on this paper so much and really did not want to cover up any of it!  I added my photo to the page and did some additional stamping using the Grateful Stamp.  This is one of my all-time favorite stamp sets, because it includes great sentiments and amazing florals.  What could be better?

To finish off the spread, I used the vellum ephemera pieces, chipboard stickers, and puffy stickers to embellish.

Here's one final look at the layout:

Thanks for stopping by today!  I am excited to see your take on this 3-To-Inspire challenge.  Be sure you share it with us on the CTK Fan Facebook Page or on Instagram using #citrustwistkits.

"BeautiFALL" Life Crafted with Tina Stepanova

Hello CTK friends!

It's Tina here, and today I want to share with you a new Life Crafted project I made using the beautiful November "Gratitude" Kit.

I decided to combine documenting one of our recent hikes and gratitude journaling as this month's kit is perfect for both of these. So I started by decorating the photos of the first layout with some kind of title at the top using glitter alphabet stickers and a "time to unwind" puffy sticker. Next I trimmed a 3x4 journaling card to fit into the lower pocket of a page protector #3 and printed my journaling on it.

After that I cut out the quote from the turquoise journaling card and adhered its words to the butterfly card. And that's it, the first layout was finished.

On the back of the butterfly card I printed my gratitude journaling (I must say I did it before I adhered the quote I was telling you above). And then I added a cut apart purple label and a puffy sticker at the top of another photo of my family.

For the last page I chose a page protector #1, trimmed a piece of white cardstock to fit into it and created a fallen leaves pattern using die-cut vellum pieces from the kit. To add a little bit of dimension to the leaves I punched holes along the middle line of each leaf and hand stitched them with a mustard yellow thread. In the end I added a few chipboard pieces in the upper corner of the photo and created a title with glitter alphabet stickers.

Thank you so much for stopping by! Until next time!

XO,

Pocket Life Challenge with Krystal

Hi everyone! Krystal here with another Pocket Life Challenge! For my pocket page spread, I decided to use the November "Gratitude" Life Crafted Kit to fill in a page from my 2017 album.

I love all the bright, colorful elements in this month's kit, and I knew it would work perfectly with this week's darker, more neutral photos. It really helped brighten things up and make the page more colorful!

I used the gorgeous glitter foam alphas to add my title for the week. Because there weren't any numbers in this set, I decided to pull out the white tile alpha with copper foil letters that we got a few months back to spell out "forty five." It matches this month's alpha perfectly!

I also added a card behind my title to give myself an extra place for journaling. That way I was able to use more of my photos and the beautiful cards in this kit and still get all of the week's stories told. To make the journaling accessible, I created a tab from one of the papers in the kit and added it the top of my journaling card. I also used the 2"x3" add-on stamp to stamp the word "recorded" on the tab. 

When it came time to embellish the photos in this spread, I decided to keep things simple for myself and use a kind of formula. I added a tag from the cut-apart sheet, a chipboard or puffy sticker, and if the photo needed journaling, a label to each of the photos on the spread. This simple formula took a lot of the decision-making out of the process and allowed me to finish the page in no time!

For the filler card in the middle of my spread, I decided to add one of the hoard-worthy vellum leaves to the bottom, just to bring in a bit more color and texture to the spread. I also stamped the "this right here" stamp from the set included in the kit at the top of the card and added some doodles with my pen to add some more pops of black. 

Overall, the page came together very quickly thanks to the little formula I used. So that's my challenge to all of you this week. Try using a simple formula for embellishing your pages and see how quickly it will all come together. And the best part is that because there is so much variety in the kit, you can use a formula without it looking too repetitive. You can see how my spread came together in the video below: 

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you were able to take away some inspiration for using your kits this month. Until next time!

Life Crafted with Patricia

Hello Lovely CTK Friends!  The seasons are changing and the holidays are upon us.  One thing that I love about the Citrus Twist Life Crafted kits is although they change, there is always a consistency with them.  There's a perfect touch of the season/theme.  Even though the colors and embellishments change, they not only work well with everyday life or a theme but also work really well with other Life Crafted kits.  They just flow.  I love that!  My 2019 Life Crafted album has some holes or empty spots I needed to fill in, and the November Gratitude Kit amazed me how well it worked!

This first empty spot, had a blank 5x8.25 page on the left and two 3x4 pockets on the right.  I loved that beige or tan pattern paper from the kit with writing all over it.  I decided to break it up to make it look like a collage on my page, so with a pencil, I traced lines diagonally to create a diamond pattern, then stitched with black thread over the lines.  Next, I trimmed it to use just parts of the pattern paper to build my background.  I used a larger diamond shape to trace cut out my photo to be the focal.

Then I used the transparent die cuts from the kit to use the Gratitude stamp set that comes with the kit using StazOn ink.  Adhered those as well as the leaves under and over my design.

Then I filled in with the other embellishments from the kit.

For the 2-3x4 pockets on the right, I used a card from the kit and stitched a rectangle in black thread.  I did this for two reasons...to repeat the stitching on the left and to create an area to type my journaling.  I then filled in with embellishments.

You can see my previous CTK project under this, and this is what I love about the flow of these Life Crafted kits...it just works so well with other LC kits.  For the bottom 3x4 pocket, I trimmed the 3x8 card that comes in the kit to use just that part I wanted.  It went perfectly with my project.  I just added a date stamp.

I had leftovers of the stitched pattern paper and it inspired me to use it on another spread, again filling in those gaps or empty spots in my album.  

This spread uses the backside of Protector #3.  That previous page, I had accidentally used the pocket upside down, but it worked!  And it still worked for this spread!  I trimmed a 4x6 card to add my journaling for the top pocket, then filled the bottom pocket with pattern paper trimmed down, and just added embellishments to frame my photo.

This spread uses all of the Life Crafted kit with the addition of the new Grateful For and Life Crafted stamp set.  Those florals!!  I used them to frame my pattern paper.  I used the "hello" sentiment from the Life Crafted stamp to stamp right across the layers of my background and pattern paper, then finished my title with embellishments from the kit.  That empty diamond spot was also a perfect spot for the kit diecuts!  Before I did my stamping, I did add a strip of the same pattern paper from the left to the edge of this page.

I added a small photo under this with some embellishments to finish it.

This last empty spot to fill, was an awkward size, and you could really see the previous CTK Life Crafted pages.  This time I added pattern papers from the Gratitude kit to work with the pattern papers from the previous kit/project.

I layered a strip of pattern paper over the older pattern paper on the left, placed my photo just enough to see where to add stamping from the Grateful For stamp set in inks to complement the pattern papers.  Then I typed my journaling on the 4x6 card with labels, trimmed and foamed adhered, adding a puffy embellishment to each one.

I added more embellishments that worked perfectly with my project.

That triangle pattern paper also set the design I wanted to repeat throughout this spread.  Using that triangle puffy sticker creates the repeating pattern, as well as the Triangular You Cut File available this month that I use here on the right.  I used the negative leftover cardstock from this cut file to blend blue ink onto my background, then adhered the cut file, trimmed, and adhered again and trimmed to cover the page.

Instead of using pattern paper to back the triangles, I created a paint pattern on white cardstock, let dry, then punched three different triangles out, to foam adhere on top of this design.  

Finished it with the chipboard embellishments and some black paint drops.

Loved being able to go back through my album and fill in stories using the Life Crafted Gratitude kit!  The first project uses just the kit and stamp, the second project uses the kit + Grateful For Stamp + Life Crafted Stamp, and the third project uses the kit + Grateful For Stamp + Triangular You Cut File.  Regardless of using just the kit or not, the kits are so well put together that they all just flow so well together.  Hope you enjoy reveal and are able to pick up this kit and few other items!  Happy creating!!